http://techweb.cmp.com/oem/docs/commerce.html Breaking Into Electronic Commerce [Excerpts] By Larry Lange Internet commerce is a riddle wrapped in an enigma. At once the biggest opportunity the computer and communications industries face in the latter half of the 1990s, it also represents their biggest risk. ... The L0pht is about what you'd expect in the way of headquarters for a motley group of twentysomething computer hackers with Internet names like Deth Vegtable, Brian Oblivion and Mudge. ... Mudge and his ilk of brilliant break-in artists believe they play an important role as the underground angels of Internet commerce, minding the gates to the new digital marketplace. ... Eric Hughes agrees. As a co-founder of Cypherpunks, Hughes is part of a virtual band of code crackers spun out of the Advanced Computer Lab at the University of California at Berkeley, connected by a regular listserv-group e-mail that reports as many as 60 security breeches daily. The group's raison d'etre, says Hughes, is "evaluating security in the interest of the user.'' His frank appraisal of the state of the art in electronic-commerce products is a tonic for the hyperbole of the public-relations machine. "I disagree with the characterization that electronic-security tools are in a high state of excellence,'' Hughes says. "In fact, I consider the state-of-shelf quite poor and not economical to deploy. Until platform security is drastically improved, these kinds of problems correctly lead to some queasiness over the widespread use of PCs to keep secrets.'' Like it or not, the Web denizens like Hughes and Mudge hold the key to the future of electronic commerce on the Internet, and everyone in the industry knows it. ... Not all Internet companies are courting the cyber Robin Hoods, however. "We're trying to prove that cryptography is powerful and can make viable, attractive and commercial propositions, while at the same time protecting people's privacy,'' says David Chaum, "The Cypherpunk approach is the opposite. It's 'We're gonna make and break systems and we're gonna debunk things by finding weakness in systems.''' [Snip balance of longish feature article]